Needles, Sticks and Hooks

Sunday, May 26, 2019

The yarn is Merino Singles and Mohair Silk, both in the colour Highgarden. It is a gorgeous colour!

The garment I chose to knit with it is The Elton Cardigan by Joji Locatelli.

The garment took 3.5 weeks to knit and 1.5 weeks for me to find some time to block. So it was done by early February right?

Well not quite - I finally sewed the buttons on yesterday (yep I know, a starter not a finisher, lol)!

I did manage to wear it (sans buttons) and it was warm and dreamy. It's a little pink ball of fluff. It weighs 175 gms with 6 buttons!

Hello everyone! If anyone is actually still out there. Yes I know it's been a long time and the world has moved on from blogging. Snapchat, Instagram - so many platforms where people can upload photos. I have been using Instagram for some time now and it certainly keeps pace with our busy lives: upload a photo and move on. But in some sense it is unsatisfying, insubstantial, disposable.

Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting a number of lovely women (you know who you are) who asked me about this blog and expressed their sadness at its demise. I was quite surprised and touched at this and so I have decided to give it another shot. Let's see how it goes.

Of course many things have happened since I last blogged and there is no possible way to catch up. So occasionally I will add some Memories so I can fill in some gaps.

Memory: I have made a couple of brief trips to Paris in the last year or so. I do love Paris and find new things to see and do every time I go. More on that another day. But last year I visited la Bien Aimee for the first time and met the lovely Aimee.

It's a gorgeous store and Aimee was very friendly and helpful. I visited there again just a few weeks ago; for me it was a must visit destination. Just off the plane - booked in to the hotel and then straight to the store since it was the only day it was open during my short trip.

I did some preplanning, so I knew what I wanted to buy.

Nearly done with the yarn I purchased there and very happy with the way it is proceeding. Stay tuned.

I have been playing around with the blog template so this is a work in progress.

That's it for now. I hope you all are well and happy and still making wonderful things.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

You can get into a lot of trouble on the internet if you don't have enough work to do. Seriously. Trust me. I've done it.

So many great projects there, beautiful fabrics and yarns of all kinds, and creative people to follow. But you need to boost your willpower before you look - so much temptation. Mine goes out the window at this time of year and I get excited about projects that I want to start for the year.

This summer I have been really drawn to some knitting projects.......but more of that in another post.

For a long time, I have had my eye on this wonderful quilt

so I thought I might have this bubbling along beside the other projects that I have.

I sort of have an idea of the colours I want to use......starting with these.

GORGEOUS....can't wait to start - but I need to wait for the papers to come.......stay tuned!

Last week I decided that I needed to get out of town for a few days, so we took a short trip to the Goldfields region of Victoria. We stayed at a lovely B&B called Keebles of Clunes.

A beautiful Country House with a glorious garden.

View from the breakfast room.

We had fun exploring Clunes, Creswick, Maryborough, Maldon and Bendigo.

We visited the Museum in Bendigo where they have this gorgeous Leonard French piece.

Lots of great food and wine throughout this region....a great short break if you need one.

And a bonus for me - I discovered that I can knit in the car (provided I don't have to read a pattern or look at my stitches) so I took a project along and got a heap done.

Here is a bit of it. My lovely daughter wanted a plain V-neck and we found this gorgeous Manos del Uruguay yarn last year that has been waiting for me to start. Knitting up so fast and really lovely to work with.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

I've decided this will be the theme for 2017. Fitting in so many ways for me, especially in relation to crafting.

When I first statred this blog, my two main motivations were to keep a record of my ordinary days, what my children were up to, how my garden was progressing, ordinary things, and to keep a record of my handwork, what I was doing, how long it was taking, things that I made that would one day be forgotten. Over the last few years it has been hard to find the time or the space to keep recording
as I might have liked. Now when I look back there are some big gaps; important things that I would have liked to record. So my plan for 2017 is to be a better blogger (aka diarist perhaps) and also to go back and fill in some of the gaps.

My second motivation was to pass on some of the skills I have learned to a new generation of hand-makers through the wonders of the internet.

It seems that many bloggers have moved on to instagram and snapchat. For me instagram does not meet my needs. I love to see the photos there, but this old dog likes to write some words too!

It seems too that the young hand-makers have some great new (to me at least) tricks that I can learn from them.

One such new trick, relates to the craft that I know best - knitting!

For some reason, since finishing work just before Christmas, I have been bitten by the knitting bug (remember it is summer here in Melbourne so this is really weird).

We have an interesting yarn shop (Woolarium) close by with many new yarns that I've never seen before. An unplanned visit there on Christmas eve saw me leave with some beautiful Shibui yarn and a shawl pattern which once started I could not put down.

The fabric is beautiful, soft and drapey, but because of the construction, looked a bit like a crumpled mess. I needed to learn a new trick- blocking. You can see this above....blocking mats underneath and the shawl pinned out on blocking wires. It worked a treat and the shawl is rather goreous.

For those interested, the yarn is Shibui - Staccato (merino/silk) in two shades of grey and a bronzey green. The pattern is the 3 Colour Cashmere shawl by Joji Locatelli (can be found on Ravelry).

So there you have it, my first new trick for the year successfully learnt. And my first blogpost too.

I hope the New Year has started well for you and gets even better as it goes along.

Sunday, January 31, 2016

with the lovely Helen, who will work her machine quilting magic on my latest quilt.

The quilt (which I have been calling Jennie Cleland), should have been finished ages ago, but I got distracted by the Sue Spargo BOM, and well, time just slipped away.

The impending Threadbear's Applique Quilt Show gave me the kick start I needed so with the two long borders (including 320 berries) to go, I knuckled down over my summer break to see if I could make it. Not quite there (48 berries to go) but should get it to Helen a week early ....wooohooooo!!

In the meantime, I have prepared the backing (photo below) - binding and hanging sleeve can be done when the quilt is being quilted.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Well it has been so long since I lasted posted I had to stop and think how to do it. But really it is like riding
a bike....once you know how it's hard to forget completely.

Having said that....some bits are a bit rusty and this is taking some time!

It has been such a busy and eventful year it is not possible to revisit all the happenings, and to be truthful, there are some that are too painful to convey. But that's life, huh?

On the sewing front, I have been more productive than I think I have (lol)...I have been working hard on the current Sue Spargo BOM...time consuming but extremely enjoyable. Sue does ask that photos of her current BOM are not posted, and I fully respect that right....but doesn't make for frequent blogging!

Neither does a project that has repetitive elements...but two borders of my Jennie Cleland quilt completed needs some fanfare I think!

I like the way this is coming together......only two borders to go.

Another section of my Frida quilt is completed....nothing like a deadline looming to focus the mind!

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

I have been admiring red and green quilts for a very long time, and you may recall that some time ago I decided to make one......this resulted in the DNQTTT quilt (if you click on the tag it will take you to posts about this).

Of course somewhere along the way this turned out to be not your traditional red and green quilt and although I like it, it's not really what I had intended. So recently, whilst throwing out some old quiltng magazines, I came across a little photo of a quilt made by Jennie Cleland, and decided that it would be my next shot at a red and green quilt.

Since it is a four block quilt, it's not great to post about; once you've seen one block, well you've seen them all. But here are the four blocks together.

I like the impact of the big pieces.

I have just started work on the first border.

Might be some time before you see this again......all the borders are the same too!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

I'm not much of a New Year's Eve celebrater. Even when I was a young adult I would avoid NYE parties like the plague. But there is something slightly sad about not doing anything for NYE, so for the last few years, we have been taking ourselves into the city, having dinner and seeing a movie then meandering home about midnight. It has worked well and last night we did just that.

After a smashingly good martini and lovely dinner we saw Birdman. What a knockout! I'm telling you nothing else, except that it is a one out of the bag - see it if you get the chance.

This quilt has peeped into a couple of posts around the place, but I haven't posted about it since it was finished.

Homage to Sallie Ann

It's a beautiful quilt. I'm very happy with it, and although it has been ready to hang for some time, it is still folded in a cupboard. I hope to get it hung before I get back to work.

Katrina did a superb job of quilting this. Below are a couple of close ups.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

I find the slowness of the week between Christmas and New Year compelling after a relentlessly busy year. This is code for - I fall in a heap and can't be bothered doing anything at all!

Hopefully I can regain my mojo soon and get some sewing done before I have to get back to work.

I have been chugging along with a couple of projects, but the progress has been S-L-O-W.

I don't mind the slowness, but it doesn't make for a whole lot of show and tell. But over the next few days I will post some of the things I have been working on. Some of them you will have seen many times before, but since the main purpose of this blog was to document my work, I'm going to post them anyway!

Today's instalment is my Mountmellick. I'm not doing this with a kit, but I have many of the original fabrics in my stash so I am using what I have.

I'm well behind the pace on this project, but hey, no prizes for being first here! It's an enjoyable project since there are lots of different things going on.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

The glorious weather inspired me to spend some quality time in my rather uncared for garden.

More rays of sunshine too, but this time the kind that come from a job finished in a pleasing manner.

This is the first block of my quilt Jennie Cleland. I am reproducing a version of it from a photo I found in an old magazine. I'm very happy with the results so far. It is a four block quilt so it will be some time before there will be much more to show.

The next photo is of the beginnings of my Going Green Gradually which I started in a Marg Sampson George workshop at Lizzie's.

Mine won't be very green I think!

And last but not least, my Mountmellick, by Di Ford. I am using what I have in the cupboard for this one. I have many of the original fabrics, but a few rogues are creeping in.

These circles remind me of the red, yellow and green traffic light lollies we used to have as kids.

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Nothing like starting a new project! How many times have I said that? But still true, and especially so, since my new, NEW project, is an original reproduction.

I love red and green quilts, and this one in particular caught my eye. No hints about the way it's going to look other than that it is a four block quilt. I'm trying to use only my stash so fabrics will change as I run out of one and substitute another.

I haven't made much progress on anything lately I'm afraid. It has been a very busy time with work and travel to conferences in Hong Kong and Vancouver.

I had a great view of Hong Kong harbour from my window........lots of construction going on. It has grown so much since I was there last, maybe 10 years ago.

You will be pleased to know (or maybe not!) that I now have a computer at home again. This has been quite a saga so I won't bore you with the details.

Last weekend was spent in absolute sewing heaven, when I attended a workshop with Marg Sampson George, wonderfully hosted by Liz. It was just what I needed after spending quite some time subsisting on not much more than house chores and work chores.

This is a snippet of Marg's "Going, going, green" which is absolutely glorious and the quilt that I am making. Not enough to show you yet............sorry!

These two pictures are from an antique style quilt that Marg is doing. Just beautiful.

Marg has such a unique way of seeing fabric, I learned a lot from the workshop......so nice to be taken out of your comfort zone.

An added bonus for the weekend was that I got to spend some talking to Jean from Linen and Raspberry. I have eknown her for a long time, but it as just great to meet the real Jean.

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About Me

I am a mathematician and mother of two gorgeous adults, one of each. I have loved making things all my life - knitting, crochet, cross stitch, needlepoint and mostly, quilting. My garden gives me great pleasure. My house is nearly renovated.